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Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius, the capitals of the three Baltic States, have become vibrant places for culture, economy, and also for politics. Digital innovation, cultural creativity, open and independent thinking are enhancing communities, projects, and networks in the region and in Europe. With BALTIC LAB, we aim to ask in a creative platform for the role of architecture and urbanism for sustainable development in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Curiosity is directed to the three metropolises, their perspectives and their interaction—and to the interaction with the territory of metropolitan margins, seaside, and inland towns and villages in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The approach of BALTIC LAB is to explore and test creative analysis and design thinking in order to contribute to facing current challenges: how can urban design and planning support to reach climate-neutrality and energy-independency? how can urban regeneration, urban transformation, and the energy-efficient renovation in particular of housing stock become part of urban visions for liveable, innovative and inclusive places? how can the shift to sustainable mobility boost urban qualities, in particular linked to the Rail Baltica project and its opportunities for urban development? how can a territorial perspective establish compactness, mix, and proximity as climate-neutrality paradigms not only in the metropolises but also beyond? 

BALTIC LAB as research and teaching laboratory at the Chair for Territorial Design and Urban Planning of LUH will invite experts and innovators from the Baltic States for lectures, discussions, and workshops. Dialogue is at the core, between students, university researchers and teachers, architects, urban planners, artists, and creatives.

BALTIC LAB will be organised as a platform “free projects” in small teams within the MSc Architecture and Urbanism programme of LUH. They share and develop together the topic and the methodology, becoming a common platform of invention and experimentation. In a first phase (10%), the selection of a place and the set-up of a mission for the project is starting from the ideas that the master students bring into the studio. In an analytical phase (30%), they will clarify the specific task of each project, in spatial, programmatic, and processual aspects, according to the specific context; and will in particular grasp initiatives, ideas, projects and processes in the places. In the design phase (60%), students will work on a range from territorial to urban and architectural strategy and intervention. For this analytical-conceptual approach, particular tools for analysis, design, and communication will be developed in the common platform of the studio—mapping, diagramming, video, infographics, drawings, models. Overall, three innovations in urbanism are addressed in BALTIC LAB: new forms of trans-scalar urban and territorial projects, that are more strategic, more adaptive, more interactive, more linked to the architectural scale; new forms of mapping and graphics to grasp spatial potentials for a creative use towards the future, in the interaction of people with space; new forms of dialogue and exchange, crucial for transformation processes.

This urban design studio will be in English.

Deliverables: (1) Portfolio: place and mission. (2) Research dossier: spatial, programmatic, processual aspects. (3) Design manual: in the scales 1:25.000 (territorial perspective), 1:2.000 (urban zooms), 1:500/200 (urban-architectural visions).

Linked to the BALTIC LAB, the excursion will concentrate on Tallinn and Estonia. Tallinn is one of the top digital cities in the world and has the highest number of start-ups in Europe. With 450,000 inhabitants it is the cultural and economic centre of Estonia. Starting point for the excursion is the opening of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB. Its edition in 2022 with the motto “Architecture of Metabolism” addresses architecture’s expressive capacity to metabolise, digest and generate resources—fitting to the focus of BALTIC LAB on climate-neutrality. In the excursion, we will explore Tallinn’s rich cultural heritage, starting from its origin as one of the first independent cities around the Baltic sea, its harbour as trade hub and the old town, UNESCO World Heritage and one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe; but also the urban heritage from modernism, from the Soviet period of Soviet occupation, and the recent urban transformation in the last 30 years; as well as current ideas, projects, debates, initiatives, and controversies on Tallinn’s urban development linked to its cultural and social vibrancy. A main topic of the excursion will be to discover the Estonian seaside and inland, its cities, towns and villages, also with a distinct spatial character, heritage, cultural and social energy; and in particular to get in contact with initiatives and projects for new living and working places outside of metropolis. The excursion will include a workshop to discuss and extend the findings of BALTIC LAB.

Excursion in September 2022.

The excursion will be in English. The excursion is targeted for the students participating in BALTIC LAB. Depending on availability, also other interested students can participate.

The Hannover Fair wants to position a new real estate trade fair for the northern German region. That important questions need to be asked and, above all, promising ideas discussed, both for the future of the sector, but especially with regard to societal challenges such as climate change, decarbonisation and social inclusion, towards sustainable cities: this is the aim of a fair stand developed by the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape at Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) and the Faculty of Media, Information and Design at Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HsH) together with the professional associations BDA, BDB, BDIA and BDLA as well as the Chamber of Architects of Lower Saxony and the Network Baukultur Niedersachsen. This special constellation of organisations active in architecture in the Hanover region is unique and demonstrates a commitment to positioning architecture for the major challenges ahead. Architecture’s role is central, linking technological, economic and social innovation with design, culture, living spaces and urban development - without which the ambitious goals cannot be achieved. The stand will encourage to think "out of the box", to look for new solutions, and will bring the energy and ideas of future architects to the stage. The stand is intended to become an attraction of the new real estate fair - and to bring architecture into discussion and exchange with social, economic and cultural actors.

In the first phase, research into the content, design and execution of the stand will be carried out. Aspects of process design with regard to urban planning and coordination with the numerous actors involved in the exhibition stand, as well as communication, will play an essential role. In the second phase, the design, construction and performative activities for the stand will be developed.

International Workshop in cooperation with Faculdad de Creación, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá, Colombia

Hannover and Bogotá, two cities of music linked by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network explore the potential creative cities have for urban transformation. The common workshop provides a platform to discuss and promote culture as a driving force for new pathways in understanding and creating the urban space. The dynamic music scenes in both cities are understood as cultural resources for the future and a paradigm for an innovative and cosmopolitan urban environment.

Creative industries comprising traditional and new disciplines are a growing economic sector. This field is an emerging sector of employment; however, the spill over effects of cultural and creative industries play an important role for societal cohesion and can be a fruitful trigger for urban regeneration and development. Culture based urbanism understands places of cultural and creative production and expression on the one hand as indicators of urban transformation, on the other hand these sites can be strategic knots for new urban projects. Concrete places of creation and encounter, connected through networks reacting to emerging challenges and needs can actively shape new spaces, services and products.

To analyse and understand the sites of cultural and creative production and exchange in the cities, mappings are a methodology to represent spatial relations. Artistic concepts and approaches in the cartographic process can reveal aspects and connections that are not covered by conventional maps.

The course will be organised with two workshops and a preparatory and postproduction phase.

This course will be in English.

There is no architecture without the city. Architectural work derives from the tasks and future of the societies and communities for which architects design and build; and architecture refers to the context of material, functional and meaningful space, in a variety of references and scales. When the professional practice and academic nature of the discipline argues its uniqueness and significance in cultural, political and economic discussions, it is today faced with an additional task: to explore and explain what city actually means. We go one step further: by territory we mean the built environment in larger contexts, especially in the interplay of country and city, in a vision of settlement as habitat. How has territory changed, which current and future changes can we name? How can we redefine the interfaces between architectural and urban planning with infrastructure, culture and nature, landscape, economy and society? What is the role and task of architecture not only for the design of buildings, but also for the articulation of spaces on a larger scale of the territory? Which concepts and design tools are necessary for this, how can they be communicated?

This course will be in English.

In the program MSc Architecture and Urban Design, OPEN TOPIC can be used to work on research dossiers, especially in preparation for the master thesis. 

In the program BSc Architecture, OPEN TOPIC can be used for research in preparation and support of a bachelor thesis (Begleitmodul).

Territorial Urbanism starts from the exploration of spatial patterns at different scales - region, valley, plain, place, building - to capture current figures of metropolitan regions, networks of cities and settlement structures in a wide range and distribution. New polarities between city and country are the starting point for updating urban and architectural concepts and attitudes. New knowledge about the interacting layers - material, figurative, functional and ideal - of the territory and their significance for social challenges should be understood as a basis for spatial design, urban and town planning and sustainable development. The lecture expands the view across megacities, densely populated areas into a broad range of spatial phenomena: into peripheries, rural areas, city networks, villages, temporary and tourist locations, infrastructural spaces. Territorial urbanism, however, means above all to question the construction of spaces, also on a larger scale, as material and manifest culture; as shaping over time, in the interplay of diverse production conditions of space, social forces, beliefs and desires. This perspective positions space - in the architectural sense as form and experience connected with activities, movements and meanings - not only as the basis (spatial capital), but also as an active/activating factor (spatial agent) for social challenges, in close relation to social, economic, ecological and cultural dimensions.

Countryside near to the city? In all larger German cities the urban expansion since 70 year transformed fringe areas deeply. In Hannover, since suburbanisation has been directed along large infrastructure axes, 15 small villages near to the city persist until today. Maintaining only little of rural heritage and agriculture functions, they have already become parts of the city—almost hidden in the common perception. The aim of WESTSIDE STORY is to discover these places and to create narratives for their future. Current challenges urge to consider new roles for these places: we are aiming at decarbonisation and energy-independency and at using renewable resources, for example addressing Food Cycles but also in many other sectors. At the same time, the growth of urban populations causes demand in housing. The 15 villages can be seen as living places of the future, with new working models and entrepreneurial chances, strongly influenced by digitalisation and based on new forms of sustainable mobility. The hypothesis of WESTSIDE STORY foresees a considerable growth in population—in particular addressing younger groups—for the 15 villages. A sustainability perspective directs development towards intensification, densification and activation, without consuming further natural spaces. At the same time, the network of the 15 villages and its linkages with the city can initiate flows not only of materials and energy, but also of people, knowledge, ideas, finances, and investment and enhance them towards a circular vision.

Deliverables: 1. Westside Atlas (different scales and graphics),  2. Intensification roadmap for each of the villages (1:2000), 3. Network strategy (workshop), 4. Vision zooms (1:500/200).

The ongoing communication and discussion of the project with plans, models, graphics, images, and presentations is a central task.